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Zynga
Zynga is a provider of social game services located in San Francisco, California.The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone on mobile phone platforms such as Apple iOS and Google Android and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook, Zynga.com, Google+, and Tencent. As of April 2012, Zynga's games have over 292 million monthly active users. Five of Zynga's games, CityVille, Zynga Poker, FarmVille, CastleVille, and Hidden Chronicles, are the most widely used game applications on Facebook, with CityVille having over 40 million monthly active users.8 "Connecting the world through games" is the company's mission. Zynga filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering on July 1, 2011, and began trading on NASDAQ December 16, 2011. History Mark Pincus founded Zynga in April 2007 under the name Presidio Media; the company name changed to Zynga in July 2007. Zynga was named after an American bulldog named Zinga once owned by Mark Pincus.They use an image of a bulldog as their logo. The early supporting founding team included Eric Schiermeyer, Michael Luxton, Justin Waldron, Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale, Steve Schoettler, and Andrew Trader. Zynga's first game, Texas Hold'Em Poker, now known as Zynga Poker, was released on Facebook in July 2007. The company received US$10 million, led by venture capital firm Union Square Ventures, in its first round of funding in January 2008. In July of the same year, Zynga received US$29 million in venture finance from several firms, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in July 2008, at which time they appointed former Electronic Arts Chief Creative Officer Bing Gordon to the board. During the same period, they also bought YoVille, a large virtual world social network game. Zynga became the #1 Facebook app developer with 40 million MAU in April 2009. Soon after, the company opened a game studio in Baltimore, Zynga East. In June of the same year, Zynga launched FarmVille on Facebook and by August it was the first game on Facebook to reach 10 million daily active users. It had 20 million daily active users by October. On November 23, 2009, FarmVille.com went live as Zynga’s first stand-alone game. In February 2010, Zynga opened a studio in Los Angeles, California as well as Zynga India in Bangalore, the company’s first office outside the United States. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington reported on May 7, 2010 that Zynga was threatening to leave Facebook altogether in the wake of Facebook's requiring exclusive use of Facebook Credits for monetization in applications. On May 18, 2010, Facebook and Zynga entered into a five-year relationship to expand the use of Facebook Credits in Zynga's games. In May 2010, Zynga acquired XPD Media. Weeks later on June 3, 2010, Zynga acquired Challenge Games, which would later be known as Zynga Austin. Zynga acquired Conduit Labs in August 17, 2010, renaming it Zynga Boston. The acquisition of Dextrose, now Zynga Germany, marked the company's first expansion into Europe. Bonfire Studios was acquired by Zynga on October 5, 2010. It was renamed Zynga Dallas. The acquisition brought Zynga's workforce to more than 1300 employees worldwide. Months later, on December 2, 2010, Zynga announced it acquired the Texas-based mobile game developer Newtoy, Inc., developers of Words with Friends and Chess with Friends, and renamed the studio to Zynga With Friends. In December 2010, Zynga's game CityVille surpassed FarmVille as its most popular game with over 61 million monthly active users and a base of over 16 million daily active users. Zynga acquired the New York-based game developer Area/Code, now renamed Zynga New York in January 2011. Soon after, in March 2011, Zynga announced the acquisition of the team from Boston-based game developer, Floodgate Entertainment. It was Zynga's tenth acquisition in ten months. In April 2011, Zynga announced the acquisition of MarketZero, an online poker tracker company. In May 2011, the company launched its most complicated game to date—Empires and Allies. Zynga filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an initial public offering on July 1, 2011. At the time, the company had 2,000 employees. Zynga began trading on NASDAQ on December 16, 2011. On January 8, 2012, Zynga added a new category to its social gaming with a new puzzle game, Hidden Chronicles. February 15 2012 saw the launch of Zynga Slingo, a knock off of the popular slots/bingo combination games popular online and in casinos. On March 21, 2012, Zynga announced they purchased the game company OMGPOP for $180 million,therein acquiring the game Draw Something.31 A noticeable drop in popularity was noted following the acquisition, as daily active users dropped from 15 million to 10 million in the first month post-acquisition. In June 2012, CBS was the winner of a bidding war for the pilot of a TV Gameshow based on Draw Something. On June 4th, 2012 Zynga announced the purchase of video game maker Buzz Monkey, along with their entire 50 person, Oregon based office, which will now turn into Zynga's 18th satellite office. Buzz Monkey is known for working on successful video games such as Tomb Raider and Tony Hawk, as well as Zynga's Frontierville. Relationship with Facebook On July 18, 2011, Zynga filed an addendum to its Form S-1 detailing its relationship with Facebook, including the 2010 five-year agreement to exclusively use Facebook credits. According to the released information, all covered Zynga games that use Facebook integration must remain exclusive to Facebook for the duration of the agreement, and Zynga is not allowed to release new games on an undisclosed list of other social networks. Also, Zynga is required to notify Facebook of any new games at least one week prior to their release. Finally, Facebook agrees to help Zynga reach "certain growth targets for monthly unique users of Covered Zynga Games". On October 11, 2011, Zynga announced plans to create their own platform in which users can play the company's games. Although the platform, Project Z, will still have major ties to Facebook it is believed to be the first major step away from the social media giant. Facebook’s S-1 Filing indicates Zynga generated 12% of Facebook’s revenue in 2011. Category:Game Developer